Sympathy for chairs August 21 6 – 7.30 pm An hour long “workshop” lead by Heather McCalden, a visual artist with dance training, whose practice deals with movement and spatial relationships.

Starting from the idea that during a conference or talk, chairs and their positioning play a role in how the “content” of the talk is passed from speaker to the audience, the ten or so participants to the workshop will be led into a series of exercises/games involving chairs. while musicians and Girolamo will act as “the speakers” , offering a soundtrack made of word and music improvisation, but also actively participating in the games.

Cardboard model making August 20 and 27 3 – 6 pm Few places still available to join this small workshop divided into two parts and lead by architect Enrico Arrigoni who will teach how to build cardboard models for architecture.

Studio4 will be used, revamped as a conference room, as a sample, where everything inside will be measured by the participants in order to make 3d models on the computer which will then be turned into 2D shapes which will be cut and assembled into a 1:20 scale model.As the number of places is limited to 6, we ideally wanted to engage participants over 50 aged especially those who have less opportunity to play with computers, but if you’re young and interested do still get in touch!

Topic-nic and the secret life of an audience August 26 11 am – 5 pm The “largest” of these events, hosting about 15 participants

To begin, all the participants will be invited to have a picnic in Victoria Park where they will discuss ideas unfamiliar while eating food also new to everyone.Later everyone will go to Girolamo’s studio at Chisenhale Studios, where he will talk about what his idea of an audience is directly with the participants as an audience. Finally ending with the photographer Rama Lee taking a group picture of everyone posing as the ideal audience.

If you are interested in any of the above events, please email Girolamo

Over the summer holidays Artist Ellie Wyatt will be teaching kids simple print making techniques, if you would like to join her, just turn up at the Roman Road Adventure Playground on the 2nd, 9th and 10th of August from 11am till 2pm.

Joint recipient of Chisenhale Studios’ Pete Lloyd Lewis Award, David Blackmore, is converting his studio into a RAGE PEN on the last Thursday of each month until April 2018. Participants are required to bring objects (big or small) which they want to destroy in a controlled scenario to release tension, anxiety and stress. These objects could come from your personal life or working environment – essentially things that are a symbolic source of frustration, which is a starting point for much of his work. There are two slots available for each event: 7pm-8pm & 8pm-9pm. To book a place or make an inquiry email David with the subject heading ‘I WANT TO VENT’. Personal Protection Equipment and demolition tools provided. Rage sessions will be recorded visually and the participants interviewed. A model release and personal injury disclaimer must be signed upon arrival. Image above: David Blackmore.

Image: Jennifer Martin.

July Summer Residency: Jennifer Martin

Throughout July,Jennifer Martinwill be presenting Full of Loops, an interactive installation which appropriates the aesthetic and functional structure of ‘Old Time’ portrait studios with attention to the inherent problems of such places in which race and gender are usually stereotypes for an experience of fairground fun. As part of this project Jennifer is hosting several events including these reading groups which you can book to attend.

Full of Loops Reading Groups:

Wednesday 19 July, 6.30–8.30pm. Participation in the Photographic Act. As chair of this reading group, Jennifer Martin will address aspects of participation and agency in the photographic act, discussing a text from Ariella Azoulay’s The Civil Contract of Photography. Book here.

Saturday 22 July, 14.00–16.00pm. Temporality & the Anthropocene. Sasha Litvintseva’s doctoral research (Goldsmiths University) focuses on ‘geological film making’ as a ‘visual strategy for the Anthropocene’. As chair of this reading group, Litvintseva will respond to the Full of Loops installation and thematic Western film genre in relation to her research on the Anthropocene and temporality. Book here.

Goldsmiths Curating MFA students events at Chisenhale Studios.

Our annual project with Goldsmiths’ curating students features four exciting event-based presentations taking place in the ground floor education studio between 24th and 29th July.

Monday 24th July 6.30-9pm: ‘Day of the Beast’ – an evolving installation by Javier Chozas, curated by Sol Polo. Javier will be creating monstrous sculptures using waste materials in the education room and on the canalside terrace, to explore the figure of the monster and its social role. All welcome, just turn up.

Image; Javier Chozas.

Wednesday 26th July 6.30-9pm: Liminal States is an immersive installation and performance by Rachel Cheung, curated by Alexine Rodenhuis. Rachel will create a Portal Room in the ground floor studio, a threshold between the real and virtual, reflecting on corporeal uncertainty in the face of technology. The performance will involve dancers from Chisenhale Dance Space. All welcome, just turn up.

Image: Rachel Cheung.

Thursday 27th July 7-9pm: Labelled, a discussion around exhibition labels/titling and subversion, curated by Aubree Penney as a precursor to the show she is curating at Enclave. Examining the way artists and project-makers are using labels as a form of interventionism, fetishizing the label and drawing attention to the relationship it has with the work – sometimes constituting the work itself. Click here to book by email.

Saturday 29th July 3-5.30pm: Decolonising Gynaecology, a workshop led by Barcelona-based collective Gynepunk, curated by Nora Heidorn. GynePunk have developed open-source, DIY gynaecological kits for self diagnosis by those who have no access to or fear discrimination by public health services. Their activist practice aims to promote self-knowledge and learning with regard to our own bodies, to offer a counterpoint to the authority of expert opinion, and to explore patient-led methods of diagnosis and treatment. Click here to book by email

Image: Gynepunk.

Studio Artists News

Image above: Matt Calderwood.

Matt Calderwood is showing video in GENERATION LOSS, curated by Ed Atkins from the Julia Stoschek collection in Dusseldorf. It has just opened and is on for a year. He also has a solo show of 3 new large scale works in the foyer of 5 Howick Place, SW1P 1WG until late October and is in PLAN UNPLAN a group show at Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich, which opens 14th July.

Alicia Paz is showing in the summer exhibition at the Kunstverein Roederhof, Germany. Gut 50, 38838 Römerhof. Alicia’s new website features news on several more shows she’s in currently.

Image above: Sam Hodge (detail).

Sam Hodge is participating in a group show ‘In Residence’ at Griffin Gallery, Evesham St, London, W11 4AJ. July 27 – Aug 25, PV July 26 6-9pm. This exhibition is showcasing the work of artists who have been in residence at Griffin gallery, where artists are encouraged to experiment and innovate with materials.

and finally, Kate Hardy’s painting students from the evening course she runs in our education room are showing at Cafe East, Roman Rd until September:

For several years now the school’s programme has been led by artist Sara Heywood and run in partnership with Chisenhale Art Place. The programme aims to inspire young people to grow their arts and leadership talents: it’s creative, valuable and accessible.

An important part of the programme is the special opportunity the children have to visit working artists in their studios, this allows the children to talk directly with the artist and see their work first hand – this year they visited Chisenhale Studio artists Diana Taylor and Sam Hodge.

On the 9th of June the children were surprised by a taster session with Sam Hodges, she took materials over to the school and gave the kids a guided demonstration of a printmaking technique favored by her. Each of the children produced several prints which they proudly displayed a the exhibition.

Throughout July, Jennifer Martin will be presenting Full of Loops, an interactive installation which appropriates the aesthetic and functional structure of ‘Old Time’ portrait studios with attention to the inherent problems of such places in which race and gender are usually stereotypes for an experience of fairground fun. As part of this project Jennifer is hosting several events including these reading groups which you can book to attend.

Sasha Litvintseva’s doctoral research (Goldsmiths University) focuses on ‘geological film making’ as a ‘visual strategy for the Anthropocene’. As chair of this reading group, Litvintseva will respond to the Full of Loops installation and thematic Western film genre in relation to her research on the Anthropocene and temporality.

Lawdale School once again made their annual trek to Chisenhale Studios. This time, the children and parents of the School’s ever successful Film Project came to meet artist Seth Pimlott, the 2016/17 recipient of our Pete Lloyd Lewis Studio Award.

The visit started with a look around the studio and a talk with Seth about his work, including the screening of a film he had been working on.

The group then took part in a workshop using the mapping technique, to help release their creativity. The children were asked to think of things connected to their response to moving from Primary school to Secondary School, which unleashed some amazing drawings about their fears and hopes.

The Lawdale Film Project introduces children to the world of film making, providing them with the opportunity to make decisions about the process at every level. Participating children explore every required skill – from script writing to story boarding – and experience every crew role, from director and camera person to clapper board. They also get to do all the acting. The project has been running for the past 5 years and is led by film artist Lisa Nash and supported both by Lawdale School and Chisenhale Art Place.

At the completion of her six-week residency, Nicola Dale presents new work arising from her research into art historian Aby Warburg’s photographic collection at The Warburg Institute. Nicola has selected and abbreviated 89 images and translated them into an eight-metre mural, in turn to be used as a choreographic score by contemporary dancer Chloe Aliyanni.

Expanding ideas developed during past projects (at Manchester Central Library, Shanghai Library, the National Arts and Education Archive and the University of Manchester) Nicola has been using her Standpoint Futures residency to explore processes of accumulating and communicating knowledge.

The number of images Nicola has chosen corresponds to the amount of unfilled holes she found in one wall of her residency studio, which she catalogued obsessively when she arrived in London. This holey reliquary – of absent works by previous studio occupants – is playfully interpreted as a methodology for gathering new research content from the photographic collection; reflecting on the idiosyncratic logic of systems through which knowledge is manifested and spread by archival institutions.

Nicola’s wall drawing isolates diagrammatic fragments from the photographs, such as a tail, a fool’s ear, a poised hand or a grimace. By inviting a dancer to take this abbreviation-relay a stage further, through movement-based interpretations, Nicola’s interdisciplinary game of Chinese Whispers both refines the image to its gestural essence and further obscures its original intent. In an era where excessive access to information invites continual abbreviation and mediation (e.g. emojis and viral sharing) Nicola’s subversive library processes are particularly apposite, using analogue, embodied actions to destabilise content and create new streams of cognition.

The event will take place in our Studio4, on the first floor, 7-9pm on Thursday 22nd June.